Roller supporting cage for roller bearings



y 7, 1953 J. LEVINE 2,644,730

ROLLER SUPPORTING CAGE FOR ROLLER BEARINGS Filed March 5, 1952 IN V EN TOR. (762x 05 Lefine,

Patented July 7, 19 53 2 Claims.

This invention relates'to 'roller bearings comprising 'a' bea'ringjbo'dy having -in a circumferential face thereof a countersunk raceway bounded by sidewall flanges,in'whichfiacewaya series of anti friction rollers are "housed, and including 5 aslotted cylindrical sheet metal cage for retaining said rollers in operative circumferentially spaced relation aroundthe bearing body.

Roller bearings as heretofore known to the art have included discontinuous sheet metal cages 1:; wrought into "split cylindrical form's with their transverse juxtaposed" 'or, meeting en'ds disposed, in-sorne cases, paralleltolther axis of the-cage, or, in 'other cases-,obliqueto the axis of, the cage. Such split ca'ges can be temporarily dia'metrical-' I; 1y and circumferentially contracted or expanded, as may be required, to facilitate endwise applicationthereof to and assembly with a bearing body and into operative engagement"withantidriction rollers to be retained thereby in the raceway of in the bearing body 1 Such contraction or expansion is attained by radially separating the abutted meeting ends of the cage, and then manipulating thecageso as to temporarily reduce or expand it"s di'ameter' and circumference. After the so contracted or expandedcage is assembled -withthe bearing body and'operativel-y engaged with the rollers to be retained thereby, the cage ends I are again brought I mutually into aligned abutment, thus returning the cage to its normaldiam D eter'and circumference If the cage'is split on atransverse line parallel to the-axis of the cage, there *is no interlockingot the abutted meetingends" of the cage, and risk of relative I displacement of said ends under" centrifugal =or- 'otherforce occurs, with consequent riskef displacing the-anti-friction rollers --or impeding their-freeaction. If thec'age-issplit on'a transverse line oblique to'the axis of the cage, so 'that the break or split crosses a plurality of the roller embrac- ,m

ing slots of said cage, there is likewise no' interlocking of theabutted meeting ends of thecage, except that the rollrs which extend across the 1 oblique breakor=split1act as keys to resist to some extent separation of the abutted meeting ends of the ::cage.,: "It ;has, been found, howeventhat use of the rollers for suchkeying efi ect; is undesirable, since any tendency to separating movement of; the meeting ends of the cage is transmittedto oppositeend -portionsof the keying brollers embraced-by a" divided'cag'e slot, in respectively opposite-,gdirections;fsthereby tending to s ill these rollers askew, that is out of nor to the axis of the bearing.

mal parallel relation sum displacement" oftiie rollers subjectsthe 5'5" 3: P TENT F E f ROLLER SUPPORTING CAGE FOR V BEARINGS Joseph Levine, Irvington, N. J. Application March 5, 1952,, Serial No. 274,919

- (o1. sass-zit) ROLLER J same to undesirable friction and wear, so'that sniooth performance of the bearing is "impeded,

Having the above stated faults of split "roller supporting cages of'the priorjart in view, it' is' an object of this inventionto provide an improved construction of split cylindrical sheet metal bearing roller cage, the meeting ends-of 1 which can be radially separated to-'permitcon',-

- traction or expansion thereof as may, innifany' given case, be required, but whereinv said meet'- ing endsjare' so ,formed that, when'abutt'ed thel same will mutually interlock so as to be self-re tained against separation under centrifugal or other force'jthereby assuring'maintenance of the normal cylindrical symmetry of the cage,and' proper retaining support of bearing rollers thereby, without riskoftransmis'sion to the latter'of' disaligning or frictional'stress; v The above andother objects of this invention will be understood froma reading of the foll ow f" ingj detailed description thereof in connection 7 withtheaccompanying"drawings,in which:

Fig. lis an end elevational view ofa'roller bearing equipped I with a roller retaining cage" according? to this invention; and Fig; 2---isa? transverse sectional;vieiw ofthe same, takeno n line' 2-2 in Fig. 1, with the inner race rma em ed r L V r.

Fig.3 is an-endelevational view of the'rollen' cage per se, showing its meeting ends-separated-' to permit temporarily contraction or expansion of t 7 it r -i Fig. iis afragmentary plan view of the meeting" endportions of the cage,"shown in separated relation. 7 Referring to the drawings, anillustrativeem bodiment of the invention, as shown in Figs-k 1 and 2, comprises a roller-bearing having anouter race ring IO and an inner racering 'l'l.-"""- I"he onter race ring is provided with an internal raceway l2 to house a plurality? of anti-friction rollers l3. Said raceway is in the form of an annular channel having side a11s;|4;-s ad; apart at a distance corresponding to" the lengths of the rollers, whereby "the e d5 of said rollers 3 impinge' upon" said side wallsyso ias -to' "be held thereby 'againsflaxialgiisplacernenti 'I'hdfith of "the"raceway channel 'is' 'soinewhat in exces of the radialdimensionsof tharoller's; 5

- circumferentially spaced slots [6 of widths less than the diametric size of the rollers l3, whereby side margins of respective slots engage the peripheries of respective rollersoutwardly of the axes of the latter, thereby retaining the rollers in desired circumferentially spaced relation around the bearing, with their outer peripheral faces exposed for engagement by the inner race ring ll. 7

The roller retaining cage I is ordinarily stamped out of fiat sheet metal having requisite resiliency to provide a strip of required width and length from which a cage of required length and diameter can be formed, and so as to provide said strip with a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart slots [6 corresponding in number to the number of anti-friction rollers to be ac ,commodated; said slots being separated by intervening transverse web members I1, which extend between opposite longitudinal marginal portions l8 of the cage forming strip.

The respective ends of the cage forming strip ferential separation of the meeting ends of the cage is inhibited, while; at the same time, owing to the relative opposite or reverse obliquity of the outer joints 22 and 24, lateral displacement or separation of the meeting ends of the cage is likewise inhibited. It will thus be obvious the cage joint is of such character that, when the meeting ends are joined thereby, the normal operative cylindrical condition of the cageis self- I I maintained, without necessity for use of antifriction rollers as keys fonretaining the cage closed.

Since the terminal slots I6 and iii" are not crossed by the middle joint 20, so as to be wholly transversely divided between their ends, antifriction rollers embraced by said slots are not ing, since it will be obvious manna invention is; equally applicable to awroller bearing race ring may be required. To this end, 'a terminal web member, that is a web member located in the area of the splitor break of the ultimately formed cylindrical cage, is divided to provide a half-section l1 extending from one marginal portion 18 of the cage strip, and another half-section I1" extending from the other or opposite marginal portion l8 of said cage strip. The meeting ends of the thus divided terminal web are cutto form corresponding oblique end edges [9 and I9 (see Fig. 4) which, when'abutted, 'provide an oblique middle joint "28 extending between the terminal slots [6' and [6 (see Fig. 2). The meeting ends of, one longitudinal marginal portion I[8 of the cage strip are cut to form corresponding oblique end edges 2| and 2| (see Fig. 4) which, when abutted, provide an oblique joint 22 extending outwardly from an end of one terminal slot IE to the outer edge of this marginal portion [8 in one inclined direction (see Fig. 2) and the meeting ends of the other or opposite longitudinal marginal portion 18 are cut to form corresponding oblique end edges 23 and 23' (see Fig. 4) which, when abutted, provide an oblique joint 24 extending outwardly from'the end of the other terminal slot l6" to the outer edge of the latter marginalportion l8 in an oppositely inclined direction (see Fig. 2). I II To apply the split cage to the outer race ring II), the meeting ends of said cage are relatively displaced radially to separate the same and break the joint formation thereof (see Fig. 3). The cage can thereupon be contracted for insertion endwise into the interior of the outer race ring, and, when in place therein, can then be expanded to engage the respective anti-frice tion rollers l3 in the embrace of corresponding cage slots, for projection through the latter. The antifriction rollers fbeing thus engaged, the meetingends of thecage are brought into abutting relation, thus closing the joints 20, 22 and 24, so that the cage will be locked thereby inits normal operative cylindrical conditionj Owing to the obliquity of the middle joint 20 circumsubjected to pulling stresses applied to opposite end portions thereof respectively in opposite directions and tending to, shift said rollers askew.

Although there is shown, by way of illustration, a roller bearing race ring provided with internal cage, retained anti-friction rollers, no limitation.

is ,intended'to this specific type or roller be'ar-' providedtvith external cage retained anti-friction, rollers.

Having now described my invention, I claim:

1. In a roller bearing having an annular charinel forming a. raceway and anti-friction rollers housed in and across said raceway,.-a discontinuous cylindrical roller retaining cage having slots to embrace said rollersfincluding terminal slots respectively adjacent the respective meet? ing ends of said cage, said slots being separated by transverse web membersflextending between longitudinal marginal portions of thecage, said meeting ends of the cage being correspondingly cut to provide, when abutted, an oblique mi ddlet joint extending across the web member between 1 said terminal slots, and outer oppositely inclined oblique joints respectively extending across the respective longitudinal marginal portions of the cage, one from an end of one terminal slot and T the other-from the opposite end of the other terminal slot.

2. A roller cage comprising a body of resilient sheet metalhaving longitudinally spaced roller embracing slots including terminal slots re-.

spectively adjacent the respectivev ends of said body, said slots being separated by transverse web members extending between longitudinal marginal portions of the body, said body being wrought into cylindricalrform with its endsj in meeting relation, said meeting ends being corre- "spondingly cut to provide, whenabutted, an; oblique middle joint extending across the web member between said terminal slots, and outer oppositely inclined oblique joints respectively ex-e tending across therespective longitudinal marginal portions of the body, one from anrend' of one terminal slot and; the other from the opposite end of the other terminal slot. I

JOSEPH R eferences'Cited in the file of this p e,

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name I I Date 861,870 I Lockwood I July 30; 1907 2,503,070 .R ei ss I I Apr. 4. ll-950 FUREIGN PATENTS I Number Country Date" I Great Britain A. D. 1898 

